


The Truth of Number Two

by geekglassesgirl



Category: The Lorien Legacies - All Media Types, The Lorien Legacies - Pittacus Lore
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-01-30
Updated: 2020-01-30
Packaged: 2021-02-27 07:01:54
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 3
Words: 2,464
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/22483018
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/geekglassesgirl/pseuds/geekglassesgirl
Summary: Number Two was never lost. But she wasn't really found. The true story to number Two's survival and secrets."I wish I knew more about her. I have searched through everything she's ever owned, her pictures and asked her family so many questions. I don't think I'll know this girl who I have become."
Comments: 3
Kudos: 5





	1. Careless or Critical consideration?

I'm walking home from school. I'm wearing the shorts that I had to change into before leaving school, considering the heat but the fact that that we're not allowed to wear shorts during class. To all outsides eyes, this is normal. I'm normal. Or at least as close as it gets. I mean I have a screwed up life, but it exists far deeper than my separated parents.

Truth is my parents aren't separated, their dead. The people who I refer to my parents, who think they are my parents -are really those to another girl. But she is dead. And it is because of me.

I am one of nine kids sent from Lorien to Earth to someday restore it. But my Cepan, that being my protector and mentor, didn't play by the rules. He was smarter then he let on and far more powerful then I could ever understand.

When I was hardly four we landed on Earth. Traveling around the world we found ourselves in British Columbia. It was there a crazy decision was made. And I still feel guilty.

My Cepan who went by Rupert at the time knew the Mogodorians were on to us. It had only been a couple of months but we were already being trailed. I never really understood what any of that meant. But I saw how much it scared Rupert and I knew I too should be scared.

We were at a park in the local neighborhood and another girl my age was playing on the swings, both her parents arguing behind the slides, their youngest son in a stroller and another boy sitting in the sandbox.

The fight was very public, everyone heard what was going on and the kids didn't seem to mind. They accepted this as their normal.

We went to parks to try to look like any other parent taking his daughter to a park for some sunshine. But a series of events sparked a change in fate for both me and most severely, that little girl and her family.

She approached me and we started to play. She was nice. We zoned out and talked, she said she liked me. That usually all she hears was her mom and dad fighting. And then she hugged me before she ran off to help her little brother get up after he had fallen, the parents still busy.

That same day a strange man approached Rupert. He had a long knife like a sword. It was after dark and we were passing by an alleyway. I got behind a dumpster at Rupert's demand, having practiced this routine before.

All I remember was Rupert crying and looking at me with sad eyes after he had called out to me saying the bad guy was gone. I was so confused and scared. Even now I still don't truly know what happened. But I can make a good guess.

Anyways, the next day we went to the park again. The girl was there-but this time she was alone. And she was crying.

Rupert and I comforted her. She said a lot of things that were not coherent through her sobs. But somehow it sparked something inside Rupert. It was then he made a dangerous and bold decision.

Essentially, he was going to switch us.

I have a protective spell put on me, along with the other eight kids who came to Earth with me. Even at four, it was made clear that I was to understand it and how it worked. We were in order. I was number Two. We could only be killed by the bad guys in that order. And when one of use did die-it would show by sketching a scar of their number into our legs. I know it sounds crazy. Trust me it is crazy.

This spell is supposed to be unbreakable except by only one thing-us number reuniting. But Rupert said that he had a good plan. A dangerous one.

The girl and I looked the same. Shockingly so apparently. And looking at pictures of her, versus pictures of me before and after we were switched I can see the resemblance.

It turns out the girl was crying because her parents were separating. She and her brothers were moving across the country with their mom to stay with family members who hardly knew them. I only know that because I lived it. That day in the park, my Cepan asked the girl if she wanted to go somewhere else? Not have to worry about the parents fighting anymore?

Curious and confused the girl listened on. Surprisingly bright for a four-year-old human girl.

Rupert explained then, that I was a special child who would one day have powers to protect everyone...but that there were bad guys after me. The girl looked from my face to Rupert and held a stoic face.

She caught on before I did. Knowing what my Cepan was suggesting. She spoke before he continued, she said: "I've learned to be strong when others are weak." Rupert smiled at her fawningly and then looked at me very nervous and unsure.

It was then that it clicked with me. She was willing to switch with me. To go with Rupert and I live with her family. It was a complex and crazy idea and a plan that should never have worked. But crazy things happen sometimes I guess. I mean it's crazy a bunch of alien kids came to Earth right?

The biggest issue besides both of us kids not truly understanding the depth of what was going on..but the charm. If I was to switch with the girl the point would be for me to live like a human girl. Grow up in plain sight from the people who wanted to hurt me. And for the other girl to go across the world with Rupert on the run. The Mogs would follow the well-known face of my Cepan and the child he runs from place to place with.

But loopholes are everywhere and that was Rupert's specialty. Finding and using loopholes.

He had me give my pendant..a gift from Lorien itself...to the girl. I understood the magnitude of this act. For what felt like forever I was taught that it was important. But somehow I knew what we were doing was even more serious.

It's kind of weird, isn't It? Thinking about a grown man talking to two little girls for a long time in the park. Like why didn't anyone ask anything? I mean why didn't they find it strange? I'll never know.

That night Rupert gave me an envelope. Inside were pages of letters and instructions and secrets. He told me to keep it very safe. Ridiculous really to ask a child to protect someone so critical. But somehow he knew his plan would work.

Then after dark, I went home to the little girl's parents and Rupert said he was taking fake me across the ocean. Far away to hide. He told me to be brave and remember that I was stronger than anything I could imagine.

That was the last time I ever saw him.

Honestly, it's all a fluke any of this worked at all. But I try to tell myself it was meant to be this way. But sometimes I still feel guilty.

The next day I became Mary-Suzanne. That was the little girl's name. She gave it to me so I could survive. And so I could save the world and her family. But I couldn't save her.

Maybe it was the darkness or the chaos that resulted in the girl's parents not noticing their daughter changing appearances. Most would say only bad parents would be so ignorant...stupid to be fighting in front of their kids as they had been in the first place. But they really weren't bad parents. I mean I don't think so. But they are the only ones I remember...so maybe I'm wrong.

I adapted quickly to my new life. It wasn't longer than a week until I was on a plane with my new mom. Her family hadn't seen the real Mary-Suzanne in two years. So they didn't see anything suspicious when this new girl appeared, more grown-up and with longer hair.

I swear I'm not insane. I'm not making this up. Honestly, I'm writing this after getting home from walking back from school in my comfy shorts.

The first scar appeared when I was eight. I was in my room and held in my screams as I felt my flesh burn.


	2. Two's Second Chapter

I immediately knew what was happening. But I didn't know what to do. After biting on a blanket while the pain seared in my leg, I reacted.

I ran to where I hid the letters. I opened the one that said to do so in the event I got a scar. It instructed me to hide it until I could cover it up. Most preferably another scar. To scratch out the freshly burned symbol with a crude scratch. As though I had experienced a bad fall. Just another kid who fell down.

I quickly pulled on pants and said I was going to ride my bike around the block. The women who truly believes she is my mom said to be careful and let me venture outwards.

But what she didn't know was I had hidden a glass bottle in my small backpack. I rode my bike to an area of brush. A place where teens usually go to drink hidden by the trees.

I figured I would stage having fallen off my bike. I would fall off my bike because I had gone onto unfamiliar terrain and when I fell I landed on broken beer bottles.

So I rode as fast I could and abruptly braked on the peddles. I let myself fall on the ground and even tried to hit it harder. I took out the pieces of glass that now layer in my bag and attacked l my leg where the fresh scar was. First through my pants so it looked like they had ripped allowing for a more serious injury.

Then I took the glass right to my skin. I held no mercy. I cut up my legs in a couple of different places and made sure to destroy the scar.

Bleeding and in pain, I went home. I tried to act hurt but also ensured the two passers-by's that I was okay and heading home.

My 'mom' took me to the hospital and they gave me stitches. It hurt so much. But not as much as the realization that number One had been killed. One of my own kind. The one who had been keeping me alive.

Reading through the letter again it said Rupert was going to replicate a form of the spell on the other girl. He said he couldn't make it so it would protect her, but give her to a scar upon One's death. And in the result of her death..would produce scars on the other numbers.

I still can't believe it. None of it. I can't believe that I'm not human. That the people who have only ever loved me as their daughter don't know I'm not her.

Despite arguing with her husband, my adoptive mother is an amazing person. Once she got away from what she has explained as a toxic relationship, she got better and happier.

It kills me to know that it's all a lie. Her love for me. My life. My survival. The only truth is a girl is dead. And it's as much my fault as if I had been the one who did it.


	3. Saved or Stolen?

I was killed when I was twelve. I know because my now healed and hidden scar glowed. As if it was trying to eject from my skin.

Whatever fake spell Rupert had concocted seemed to work. When the real Mary-Suzanne was killed, the scar formed on the other numbers and it allowed for number three to be killed. But it ensured I survived.

But an innocent girl was dead. And it is all my fault.

After "I" died I didn't get any more scars. But when number three was killed I felt it. Felt it in my heart and the burning in my leg. I cried that day. Fell apart. Because he was supposed to be safe as long as I lived. I was supposed to protect him. I was supposed to protect the girl too. But she was killed in my place. She abandoned her life to travel the world with someone she didn't know.

But she was just a kid. She couldn't have known what she was agreeing too. She was more kidnapped then anything. Taken and hid away and put on the run. She didn't do anything to deserve that.

And now her family loves me like her. Tell me they can't imagine life without me. But they are living a life without me. But how can I possibly tell them that? ...

The fact is I love them too. I love my mom and younger brothers and crazy life as a human girl. But it isn't mine to love. Anything good in my life doesn't belong to me, it belongs to Mary Susanne. But at four years old she ran out of the house when her parents were fighting. She went to her favorite park and cried that she would be moving away. And then another girl and her supposed father comforted her. And that man took her away and left me in her place. And I let him.

I was only four myself. But I knew then, I felt it within me something was wrong here. But I didn't say anything. Didn't warn the girl to run or anything like that. I trusted Rupert.

I could sprout out more and more about that day. About how I went into the house the little girl said she lived in after I switched clothes with her. After Rupert rambled and frantically wrote out pages of instructions.

But I can also say what it was like to go into the house and get hugged by comforting arms. To be told I was loved and perfect in every way.

But it was Mary Sue who was loved. Her who was perfect. How could she be so stupid at four to be willing to go with a stranger?

I mean she couldn't really have understood anything of what my Cepan said to her. She was too young to have that sense of protection and strength for other people. She was just a kid. And she never grew beyond that.

She saved my life. And I stole hers.


End file.
